The Virtue of Courage in Stoicism

There are more components to courage than just mastering fear

One main way that Stoic philosophy characterizes the good for human beings is as virtue.

This is a term that unfortunately has become watered down in the minds of many in our time. The Stoics didn’t mean by it just any sort of goodness, whether perceived or actual. What they had in mind in talking about virtue — and the four cardinal virtues — was something considerably more robust.

Seneca provides one representative articulation of this in Letter 71 by telling us that the highest or supreme good — the one we need to look to and understand if we want to make decisions about particular matters in our lives competently — is what is right or honorable (honestum, in Latin). He goes on immediately to clarify that this is virtue. To be sure, virtue is not the only good thing, but from his Stoic perspective, virtue is what makes all the other good things good. It is the basis.

The Stoics divided virtue into four main types, each with its own name, its own function and area, and its own way of helping to more fully develop the nature of a human being.